The Last of Us
by silenthorror
Summary: Set five years after the Fungal Outbreak.
1. Chapter 1

the monsters of it all.

The rain splatters against the windshield as the wipers swish back and forth. It's been five years since the initial outbreak of the Fungal Plague. In the backseat is my six year old brother. He's leaning his head against the cold glass window, his breath fogging it. His dirty brown hair hung just below his eyes, he needs it cut but I'm no cosmetologist. After out parents succumbed to the plague, I was left to look after Riley. We're on our way to our grandmothers house. She lives deep in the woods, someplace the Runners and Clickers wouldn't bother going. We turned down a bumpy dirt road, it was more mud than dirt since it hasn't stopped raining since Tuesday and right now, it's Saturday. The bumps awoke Riley. He stretched and smiled.

"Are we almost there, Zoe?" He asked.

"Yeah, just about" I replied.

We finally made it. She lived in a log cabin and was surrounded by smaller cabins. I put the car in park and grabbed the bags out of the back seat. Riley jumped out of the car and ran up to our grandma as she walked out of her house. Her hair has gotten long and white and more wrinkles are visible on her soft skin but she's still skinny and fit.

"Riley!" She said happily. "I missed you. Zoe, come give your grandma a hug"

I giggled a bit and lugged the bags up a small hill. "It's nice to see you again, Gran"

"How've you been?" She asked.

"Alright...We're still alive aren't we?"

10:30 PM.

We sat gathered around a table, eating beans and soup. They had running electric here which was a big step up from the rationed electric in the city. They also had hot running water, it felt graceful on my skin.

"How's the Infected situation around here?" I asked as Riley dozed off on the couch.

"Well ya know. There's always an Infected every now and then"

There was screams outside and my grandma instantly grabbed her gun and I grabbed my pistol and picked Riley up off the couch an hid him under the steps. A pack of Runners and Clickers littered the soaked ground outside. My grandma eased her way outside and crouched down on the porch, I did the same. A Runner came screaming around the side off the house and attacked my side of the porch. We were forced to run to the the middle of the yard where a whole group of other people were. I scream, a boys scream rang in my ears. I looked at my grandma and sprinted back to the house. I busted through the door. A clicker dug it's teeth into Riley's neck.

"Get off of him you fucker!" I grabbed a knife off of the counter and stabbed it into the Clicker's head over and over until it finally loosened it's grip on his neck. The blood soaked my face, my whole entire body. I grabbed him into my arms and watched the blood pour out of his mouth.

"Is he?" My grandma asks as she walks in, holstering her gun.

"Yeah..." I say softly. "He got bit" I let the tears slid down my cheeks. I told my parents I would take care of him, I failed them and I failed him.


	2. Chapter 2

disconnected

Winter.

"Son of a bitch" I whispered to myself, looking at the puff of breath leaving my body. I had just taken the top layer of skin off of a deer with my arrow.

It's beginning to get colder every winter. This year is the worst so far. I left my Grandma's after Riley's funeral. I still can't wrap my head around his death. It's been four months.  
>I jump down from the rock I'm standing on and crash against the snowy ground. My knees buckled and I flew face forward into the snow. I just laid there and took in deep breaths, I definitely wasn't ready for that fall. My body is weak and tired.<br>I pushed myself off the ground and grabbed my bow. The snow blew gently in the air, it was so cold. My deer was right there in front of my face, waiting to be shot. I readied my arrow, pulled it back and just as I was about to shoot, a bullet zips through the air and hits the deer in the neck. The snow turns red as the blood soaks in.

I walk around the tree I was hiding behind. "That was my kill..." I say.

"Sorry" The man said. He's dirty, skinny, tall. His hands were trembling as he held the rifle. He's much too fragile to be a killer.

"It's okay...You can have it" I wrap the bow around me and start to walk off but stop at the screeching of Runners. "Runners!" I yell. "Can you handle that thing?" I ask him.

"Well enough" He smiles and aims in the direction.

I pull out my pistol and wait for the infected to appear. The air was silent, we were silent. Then out of nowhere, a Runner tackles me too the ground, chomping it's jaws at me.

"Fucker!" I hold it back with my arm. It sinks it's teeth into my jacket sleeve, luckily not getting to my skin. A clank rings in my ear and the infected retreats off of me. The man holds a wooden bat in his hand, it's half cracked from previous uses. I shoot two rounds in it's head, just to make sure it's dead.

"Help me with this deer, I'll give you some of it!"

"Shit, fine!" I say.

I grab it's antlers and start pulling "More infected!" I yell, handing him my pistol. "Protect me!"

I pull as hard as I can, but it's so heavy. I start to think it's not worth it, maybe I should leave him and the deer but I change my mind, I can't let an innocent person die. I continue to pull while he shoots. An infected attacks him from behind and tares a chunk of flesh from his neck. He knocks it off and grabs his wound.

"Kill me!" He yells, trying to reach for the pistol he dropped. But I grab it before him and shoot the Runner. There's more infected coming. I grab the deer and start to pull again but it's no use. I can't do it. I drop the deer and aim the pistol at the guy. I close my eyes and shoot. I know he's dead because he stops screaming.

I run for my life, the pistol in my right hand. I start to sink in the snow until I finally fall through. I hit pavement and crack my knee hard. I wince in pain and scoot against the wall so the Runners can't see me. It's dark in here, but I know it's large, I could tell by the echo of my body hitting the ground. I click on the flashlight attached to my coat and look around some. There's dead bodies piled against one side of the room and stacks of lunch trays. It must have been an old teaching area. I crawl a little and a hand grabs my ankle, making me let out a small but loud yelp. I smash my boot against the person's head and take off running, but limping. I know there's infected in here, I hear clickers. Soon enough, they're chasing after me. I continue to run. Infected pour out of every door I pass.  
>I jump and attach myself to a pipe. I can't get my feet to swing, there's a ledge right near me but my body is too weak to do anything. I will myself to launch onto the edge, I grapple onto it, almost falling, but I make it. I kick out a small vent that has light peering through it. I crawl through it.<p>

The sun reflects light off of the snow and blinds me. I stand up and look at all the mud and grime on my clothes. It seems to have gotten colder. I make my way through the woods, not even knowing where I'm going, but I'll end up somewhere.


	3. Chapter 3

self destruct

5 years ago.

It was 3:00 A.M. We heard it on the news. A virus running it's course through the United States and Britain. No one thought it would be this deadly. I was asleep when my parents busted through my door and my dad swept me out of bed. In my mothers arms was my brother. My dad ran down stairs, me still in his arms. Banging on the glass sliding door was our next door neighbor. He looked half dead and blood poured from his eyes. I closed my eyes tight, not wanting to look at the horror.

"Stay back" My dad yelled. "I'll shoot you!"

He busted through the glass door and tackled my dad, making him drop me. I grabbed the pistol out of the holster attached to my fathers side and aimed it at our neighbor. I closed my eyes and shot. My dad pushed the guy off and got to his feet.

"Thanks" He said.

"Yeah..." I replied.

My mother hurried downstairs with Riley in her arms. He was so young and unaware. We rushed out the front door and jumped into the jeep. Dad turned the radio on.

"At this time" A lady said. "There are reports of a widespread number of Infected in Seattle. The CDC is advising everyone to either stay in their homes or evacuate to a FEMA camps outside of the city"

"Let's get the fuck out of here" Dad said as he put the car in reverse and backed out.

My mother turned towards me, she was sweaty from running around and gathering supplies but she was still beautiful and her hair still in perfect curls. "Everything will be alright, I promise" She smiled.

A flash of orange and red light burst towards the sky. It was a large wall of fire from a plane that just crashed. We were speeding down the road, people lined the streets, some were panicking and some were infected. We passed burning buildings, burning houses, burning cars. It seemed like everything was burning. We were almost to the bridge when a jet flew over and launched a rocket at it, destroying every inch of our safety.

"Shit!" Mom yelled as dad turned the car to the right. "What are we gonna do now?" She asked.

"I don't know, we'll figure it out" Dad wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Watch out!" Mom screamed as we smashed into a wall of infected.

"I got this. Zoe, make sure you and Riley are buckled in"

"Okay" I replied, tightening my seat belt.

Dad pressed the gas to the floor and we took off, crushing the piles of infected. They banged their fists against the car windows, eventually cracking the one on my side. Once we were through, we drove until we hit a dirt road. It was long a secluded, I don't think anyone would be back here. We finally hit a clearing. It was my grandmothers house. We all got out and gathered our supplies as fast as we could. She hurried us inside and shut off all the lights, making it look like we weren't there. Her neighbors did the same. They all seemed like they had this planned for months now.

"How bad is the city?" Grandma asked.

"It's gone...It's a shit hole" Dad said, wrapping his arm around me.

I looked out the window, all I could see was clouds of smoke and fire from the city. Everything was shit, my dad was right.

"Well...We're all stocked up here" She said. "We knew this was gonna happen someday"

"Even your neighbors are stocked up?" Mom asked.

"Yeah" She replied. "We've been prepared for awhile. And this is only the first wave...Trust me"

"The first wave of what?" Dad asked.

"Of hell" She said, her eyebrows firm.

"There's FEMA camps outside of the city" Mom said, rocking Riley back and forth.

"Do you really think FEMA will keep you safe? They'll round you up and murder you...They'll murder everyone"

I got out of my dad's arms and sat on the couch, taking everything in. It's hard on a thirteen year old to imagine a world without friends, without family, without life. But I had to, I knew this wasn't going to be a couple month thing. By the looks of it, it was going to take years to clear this up.

"The Government has abandoned us" Grandma whispered. "Everyone has abandoned us, even half of our relatives. They've all went to some sort of FEMA camp"

"Even George, Clara and their kids?" Dad asked.

"Not them" Mom chimed in.

"Yes...Even them" Grandma replied, lighting a cigarette.

"Tomorrow morning, I'm going after them" Dad pushed out his chair and sat beside me.

"We have an armory in the basement, take what you need. I'll watch the kids" Grandma said.

"No" I looked at dad. "I'm coming too"

He looked at Grandma, then at my mom. "She'll need to learn how to fight, just in case we're not here to protect her"

"Okay" Mom said, I could tell she didn't agree with the idea, but it was true. I need to learn how to fight, how to save myself. This world isn't innocent anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

who we are now

The Next day

We drive through the city. It's filled with dead bodies and a line of cars stretching from the bridge to the suburbs. Everything we know and love is destroyed. We get out of the car and start walking through the long continuous rows of cars. They've all been abandoned in hopes of being saved. We finally get to the other side and see the FEMA camps just across the road. It looks empty, there's just a banner that says 'FEMA' and nothing else.

Dad goes through the doors first, then he sees the coast is clear and we follow him in. I see a row of dead bodies. They aren't even in the black bags, they're just laying there. I look at my mom, her hand is over her mouth and she's crying. There's bodies everywhere. Grandma was right, they weren't going to save us, they were going to kill us.

"Bastards" My dad says under his breath.

"They're all dead...And FEMA has left, typical"

"Let's just continue to look" I say. They agree and we look around for awhile, finding nothing.

I hear a loud scream. It must be the infected. We back up against a wall and cover ourselves in a tarp so they can't see us. But they figure out were here and it's an all out battle. I grab the pistol grandma gave to me. I'm not sure how to use it but I quickly get the hang of it. I've never seen my mother so strong, so willing to protect. She beats an infected with a wooden 2x4. She wipes off the sweat and grabs a steel pipe off of the ground. My dad shoots round into a group of infected that are chasing after us. When all seems lost, all seems hopeless. A man comes out of the clearing and unloads his magazine in the infected.

"Joel" Mom says.

"Tess" He replies. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to find you guys" Dad said, pulling Joel in for a hug.

"Hey, kiddo" Joel ruffles my hair.

"Hey, Joel. Thanks for saving out asses"

"Zoe...Language" Dad says, sighing.

"Relax, Tommy. It's the fucking apocalypse. The last thing she needs to worry about is cursing"

More screams fill the air behind us. "Let's get going" Joel says, heading towards the bridge.

We run back through the parked cars. Behind us, the infected jump over them, it's like they don't even notice the cars there. Dad helps me into the truck, then it's mom, dad and Joel. The infected jump on top of us. They're beating their fists against the truck, trying to break in.

"Tommy, let's get the fuck out of here!" Joel yells.

Before I'm able to get my seat belt on, dad takes off down the road. I fly Joel's lap and he laughs slightly.  
>"Hang on"<p>

"I'll try" I said quietly.

"Where are we headed" He asked.

"To mom's" Dad replied.

"Jesus...I'm glad she's still alive"

"She's fine. There's a bunch of survivors there"

We finally get back to the house. Grandma is waiting. I can tell she's hoping we brought good news, luckily we did...But we didn't bring back the kids...or Clara. Joel gets out of the truck. He runs to her and she instantly wraps her arms around him, tears running down her cheeks.

"Joel" She says softly. "You're okay"

He smiles. "I'm glad you're alright"

"The kids?" She asks.

He shakes his head and she breaks down in his arms. She couldn't stop crying. Mom and I go inside and prepare a meal for dinner. There's nothing good to make, but we need to eat something. I grab a can of beans and crack it open with a knife.

"Hey" She says.

"Yeah?"

"You did good today, you kept your cool"

"It's who we are now" I say.


End file.
